End of Month View – Jan 2011

Having got off to a flying start, I suffered writers block at the weekend. Maybe I am being too ambitious and a blog once a week is sufficient. It’s difficult being a newbie, and am reading other people’s blogs to spur me on with ideas. I read The Patient Gardener today in which she invites us to join the End of Month View meme. Well, first of all I had to look up the meaning of the word meme thinking it might have been a typo (with apologies to Helen!). You really do learn something new every day a ‘meme’ is: identifies ideas or beliefs that are transmitted from one person or group of people to another.

Part of the 2010 border

Now to collect my thoughts about the last year. I have decided just to show photos of the garden through the last year starting with Spring 2010. The Forget me nots are prolific as are the grape hyacinth. They tend to take over but I let them get away with it for a month or so, then pull them up, but they always come back the next year.

Spirea and forsythia - 4 April 2010

Forget me nots, guaranteed to arrive every year - 4 April 2010

Aquilegia are a great favourite of mine and in May they come into their own – below are a few photos of the various ones I have. I must be more vigilant with keeping a note on their names. However, a lot self-seed and don’t come true the next year but that is the fun of Aquilegia. They find interesting places to self-seed and I found the odd Nora Barlow poking out from under my compost bin.

Lovely pale blue aquilegia

Red and white aquilegia

Many years ago I started collecting hardy geraniums. I give them a good chop down to ground level twice a year and they come back and flower with a vengeance. I pull them apart and spread them around the garden, a great plant to fill in gaps.

A very pretty pink hardy geranium

One of the many blue geraniums in my garden

In July the garden is in its full glory with Agapanthus, Monbrettia, Japanese anemones and Dahlias. I do have roses but seem to have lost the photos. Sadly the last two years they have succumbed to Saw Fly and the stems are ruined if I don’t catch them in time, before they lay their eggs.

Blue Agapanthus

A colourful patio border

My white border

In full summer glory

This coming year I am going to have a concerted effort into growing my own veggies. I have dabbled in the past with the usual tomatoes, and courgettes. 2010 saw me being a little more adventurous growing my vegetables in pots. This proved extremely successful, and gave a few surprises – black chillies are extremely hot!! With the damage done to my lawn this winter, thanks to the snow and the foxes I have decided to turn a large part of it over to a vegetable plot. These are just some of the photos of my appotment.

On a final note I would like to share my daughter’s garden with you. You could believe it was a mediterranean garden but it is on the South Coast. It is, in my opinion, a sensible and lovely place to sit for a hardworking couple with little time to mow a lawn!

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7 thoughts on “End of Month View – Jan 2011”

Excellent to have another person join the EOMV, I find it endlessly fascinating to see other people’s gardens and how they develop. I share your love of aquilegias and geraniums, though I am lousy at cutting the latter back to get another flush of flowers, I hate the gaps it creates. One of my resolutions for the year is to bit the bullet and therefore reap the reward of more flowers.

Thanks for joining in. I didnt know what meme meant either but people say thanks for the meme so I went with it!!!!
Hope you find it helpful. When I first did it I stood at certain same spots each month and took a photo, then last year I looked at an area I needed to improve and I am doing the same again this year. its up to you to do with as you wish but i find it helpful and we also get a nose at others gardens!

I like hardy Geraniums too but never get round to cutting them back. You have a lovely selection of Aquilegias – mine just seem to die away or re-seed into boring pinks. I must be doing something wrong.
Your daughter’s garden looks a real suntrap!

Have come here via Patient Gardener. Having a rest from EOMV this month but hope to participate again soon. Not being far behind you I chuckled at the title of your blog. Look forward to getting to know you and your garden better :)